At least twelve police officers were killed Sunday in a car bomb attack targeting a police station in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The particularly violent attack was followed by an armed confrontation between security forces and militants, the police official said. Images released after the explosion showed a heavily damaged building and residents gathered amid the rubble.
According to authorities, three people were found alive after the attack and taken to a hospital for treatment. No definitive figures on the number of injured were immediately available.
The city of Bannu is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a region bordering Afghanistan that regularly faces attacks from Islamist armed groups. Pakistani security forces have been conducting operations against militant organizations there for several years.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistani authorities frequently suspect Pakistani Taliban factions of being behind such attacks against security forces.
Pakistan has seen a resurgence of violence in its border regions since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Islamabad regularly accuses certain armed groups of finding refuge on the other side of the border, which Afghan authorities deny.
This latest attack underlines the persistent security challenges that Pakistan continues to face, despite the numerous military operations carried out in recent years against insurgent groups.
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